Blog Commenting for SEO | Does It Work in 2023?

Written By

Nick Zviadadze

Nick Zviadadze

Founder at MintSEO

Contents

Blog commenting for SEO is an age-old technique that’s been used to rank all sorts of websites.

Whether it still works, though, is a completely different question.

Some SEOs claim that blog commenting for SEO works just fine in 2023, while others believe that it’s a waste of time and that you’re better off building real backlinks.

So, which one is it? 

Find our answer below! Read on to learn:

  • What is Blog Commenting for SEO?
  • Does Blog Commenting for SEO Work in 2023?
  • Other Ways to Build Backlinks Effectively

What is Blog Commenting for SEO?

Blog commenting for SEO is when you connect your blog post or website link to someone else’s blog.

Usually, this is done the following way:

  1. You find blog posts that cover a topic associated with YOUR topic.
  2. You add value to the post by making a topical and helpful comment.
  3. You link back to your blog post, saying that you cover the topic more extensively in that post.

For example:

Blog Comment Example

Hey John, great resource! You’re my go-to for SEO these days.

One suggestion: you mostly recommend measuring SEO results via Google Analytics. I believe that to get the best insights, you should use GA in tandem with Google Search Console.

I actually wrote an article on the topic – [Link] how to best use GA and GSC for SEO [/Link]. Think you’d enjoy the read!

Thanks.

The commentator here manages to accomplish several things:

  1. They deliver value to the blogger and their readers.
  2. They include a backlink back to their website.
  3. They get some referral traffic from people looking to read up about the topic.

That said, here’s the million-dollar question:

Does Blog Commenting for SEO Work in 2023?

In theory, yes. Blog commenting for SEO still works in 2023…

As long as you can actually make an SEO blog comment, which is pretty much impossible these days:

  • Most bloggers that allow do-follow links are usually amateurs with very weak domains (and hence, not worth getting a link from).
  • Strong domains that are actually worth getting backlinks from, in most cases, have their comments sections turned off, making it impossible to actually leave a comment. 
  • Websites that don’t have comment sections turned off have a manual filter – they’re not going to let you publish a comment with a link back to your website.
  • If you DO manage to slip a link comment through on a quality domain, there’s a 99% likelihood it’ll be no-follow, and hence, useless for SEO.
  • Links on top of the page count for way more than links on the bottom (as in, in the comments section). Meaning, if you manage to find a blog where you can leave a comment for SEO, the backlink won’t be worth nearly as much as a link placed within the body text of a post.

So, in a nutshell, blog commenting for SEO can work if you manage to find a domain that allows for comments, has do-follow comments sections, AND on top of all this, will allow you to post such a comment…

All of this is extremely unlikely to happen – you’ll have to spend a LOT of time finding such opportunities.

The Verdict: practically speaking, blog commenting for SEO does not work, and you’re better off building conventional backlinks.

Some other popular link-building tactics that DON’T work in 2023 and should be avoided include:

Other Ways to Build Backlinks Effectively

So, how can you build backlinks more effectively than by doing blog commenting for SEO?

Here are some tactics that work for us:

  • Blogger Outreach. Create a list of all bloggers in your niche and reach out to them asking for link placement, guest posts, or some other type of collaboration.
  • Guest Posting. Reach out to different blogs/media and pitch a guest post. A lot of blogs allow for guest posts as long as your content fits their criteria.
  • Creating Valuable Resources. Create interesting data-packed content in order to attract editorial backlinks.
  • Sponsored Link Placements. Reach out to blogs with a straightforward offer: you’re going to pay them a certain sum in exchange for a link placement or a guest post.
  • Epic Content Promotion. Create and promote extremely high-quality blog content on social media (Reddit, Facebook groups, etc.). This will indirectly get you links – if someone likes you’re content, they’re likely to link to it.
  • Three-Way Link Exchange. Partner up with other websites and exchange backlinks. Instead of doing a direct link exchange, you can do it as follows: Site A links to Site B, Site B links to Site C, and Site C links to Site A.
  • Outsource Link-Building. In case you don’t have the resources to build backlinks in-house, you can always outsource it to a link-building agency.

You can find a complete list of all possible link-building strategies here.

Key Takeaways

And that’s all you need to know about blog commenting for SEO! Before you go, here’s a quick recap of what we talked about in this article:

  • Blog commenting for SEO is a popular technique for building backlinks to your website.
  • This tactic, however, does not actually work in 2023. Most blogs either don’t allow for blog comments or, if they do, the links you’ll be getting will be no-follow.
  • Instead of wasting your time with blog commenting for SEO, you’re better off doing blogger outreach, guest posting, sponsored link placements, and other conventional strategies.

Nick Zviadadze

Nick Zviadadze

Founder at MintSEO
Need a Hand with Your SEO?
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